1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to communication systems, and, more particularly, to wireless communication systems.
2. Description of the Related Art
An ideal amplifier receives an input signal and provides an amplified output signal without introducing any phase, amplitude, or frequency distortion. However, in practice amplifiers are rarely, if ever, ideal and so the amplified output signal generally includes phase, amplitude, and/or frequency distortions introduced by the amplifier. The amplified output signal may be linearized to remove some or all of the distortions introduced by the amplifier. Predistortion of the input signal is one technique for linearizing the amplified output signal. To predistort the input signal, samples of the input and output waveforms are captured and compared to determine the amplifier response, which is usually represented as a matrix. The amplifier response matrix may then be inverted and applied to the input signal to predistort the input signal.
Predistortion is a computationally intensive operation. For example, to predistort a radiofrequency signal used in wireless communication, some 8000 to 32,000 samples of the input and output waveforms may be captured and used to determine a non-linear transfer characteristic that represents the response of the amplifier. The amplifier's transfer function must be periodically reevaluated to maintain the accuracy of the predistortion correction function, at least in part because the amplifier response matrix may change over time due to fluctuations in the transmission power, the ambient temperature, and other intrinsic and/or environmental factors. For example, elements of the amplifier transfer function may change on time scales less than 2 seconds. However, the large number of matrix manipulations required to determine the predistortion correction may take as long as several seconds to perform. Consequently, predistortion of the radiofrequency signals used in wireless communication typically cannot be implemented in real time.